Oath <1wk before US Trip; is travel impossible or is there time to get passport?

[alienangel]

So I've had a trip to the US planned for a while (and I have a valid US visa in a valid non-Canadian passport so that's not the issue). I had my Citizenship test just over a week ago, and wasn't expecting the Oath to be terribly soon, but it has been scheduled for the Monday before my Friday trip.

As I understand it, when they administer the Oath, they'll take away my PR card, and give me a Citizenship Certificate. So my questions are:

1. How much difficulty will US Border/Customers Personnel raise about my trying to travel without a PR, but with a Citizenship Certificate (note that I do have a valid non-US/non-Canadian passport with a valid US visa).

2. How difficult will it be to return to Canada after a few days with just the Citizenship Certificate (and Ontario Driver's License etc)?

3. How likely is it that if I apply for an Urgent passport through Passport Canada, they'll be able to process it in time? I see if you're wiling to pay $110 and go to the passport office in person, they say they can process it in 24 hours. But I'm not sure if Oath on Monday and trip on Friday leaves enough time for that - supposedly they tell you to wait 2-3 days after the Oath before applying for a passport?

I'll try calling CIC tomorrow to ask this stuff too, and if I can reschedule the Oath (I really don't want to delay it 60 days though), but if anyone has experience with any of the above situations, it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Leon]

According to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/cit-ceremony.asp you should wait 2 business days before applying for a passport so if you apply for an urgent passport on the Wednesday afternoon, you would have it by the Thursday afternoon and could travel on the Friday.

However, if you have another passport that is visa exempt to both Canada and the US, it would not be a big deal to travel on that passport. You can explain to Canada immigration when you enter that the trip was planned for a long time and that you simply did not have time to get your Canadian passport before leaving.

I would not recommend re-scheduling the oath. They will re-schedule at their convenience and not yours so you don't know if they will call you back in 2 months or a year and you can't know either if this may be a bad timing for you as well.